A police officer and a sheriff’s deputy were shot and killed in an upstate New York neighborhood Sunday night after exchanging gunfire with a suspect, who was also killed.
The shooting occurred just after 8 p.m. in Liverpool, about 6 miles north of Syracuse, the Associated Press reported.
Earlier in the night, two Syracuse Police Department officers attempted to pull over a suspicious vehicle, which fled the scene, the New York Post reported. The officers tracked the license plate to a home in Liverpool. More Syracuse officers arrived, along with Onondaga County sheriff’s deputies, and found what appeared to be firearms inside the car. Law enforcement then heard what sounded like someone “manipulating a firearm” inside the home, Syracuse Police Chief Joseph Cecile said in an early morning press conference.
“Moments later there was an exchange of gunfire between at least one suspect and the officers and the deputies,” Cecile added.
One of the two Syracuse police officers who first attempted to pull over the vehicle was struck and killed during the gunfire, along with a sheriff’s deputy. Both were rushed to a nearby hospital where they were pronounced dead. The suspect was also taken to the hospital, where he was also pronounced dead.
“We lost two heroes tonight,” Cecile said at the press conference. “Two men who answered the call to duty to put on the badge to protect the community, protect and serve. We lost two of them tonight.”
